


Light lessons

by crazycatt71



Series: My 2019 Advent Challenge [4]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 2019 Advent Challenge, Advent Challenge, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Lights, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21671758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazycatt71/pseuds/crazycatt71
Summary: Teaching Tony's bots how to put up Christmas decorations
Series: My 2019 Advent Challenge [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559233
Kudos: 14
Collections: 2019 Advent Ficlet Challenge





	Light lessons

“No! Not like that! Dum-e, you idiot, I'm going send you to a recycling plant.”

Steve could hear Tony's angry shouting as he approached the workshop. He walked in to utter chaos and not the normal kind he'd come to expect; this had a holiday theme to it. There were boxes of Christmas decorations all over the room, several with their contents spilling out. Dum-e and Butterfingers were draped in strings of lights, while U had garland clasped in his claw. Tony stood in the middle of the room with a large pile of severely tangled lights and garland at his feet.

“Having trouble?” Steve asked.

“I tried to program these dimwits to put up the Christmas decorations.” Tony told him waving his hands at the mess. “You can see how well that went.”

“Why not just do it yourself?” Steve asked.

“I'm a busy man.” Tony said. “I don't have time to do such menial tasks.”

But you do have time to program your bots to do it, Steve thought. He was smart enough to keep his thoughts to himself.

“What went wrong?” he asked.

“Not enough practical experience.” Tony said. “They learn by observing and doing.”

“And they haven’t ever seen or actually decorated before.” Steve said.

“Bingo.” Tony replied, kicking at the pile at his feet. “Guess I'll call this a failed experiment and hire the usual people to take care of this.”

Steve realized the bots didn't know how to decorate because Tony had never done it and couldn't show them how. That sounded sad and fixable.

“Or we could teach them.” He suggested.

Tony just stared at him blankly while he processed what Steve had said.

“Why?” he finally asked.

“Because it's fun.” Steve told him.

Tony looked at the tangled heap, then at his bots.

“You have strange ideas about what's fun.” He said, then threw up his hands in surrender. “What the hell, the bots need the exposer, let's do it. But this,” he kicked the pile again, “is a lost cause. I'll order some more stuff and we'll try again.”

A few days later, Steve walked into the common room to see a huge Christmas tree, it had to be 12 feet tall, by the windows. There were dozens of boxes of ornaments, garland, and lights stacked all over the room. The bots hovered next to Tony, beeping quietly to themselves.

“We're gonna need more help.” Steve said, pulling out his phone.

A few minutes later, the rest of the team poured into the room. Soon, everyone was in full decorating mode. Steve opened a box and started laughing when he saw all the Avenger themed stuff inside.

“I thought everybody would get a kick out of them.” Tony said, defensively.

“I think they're great.” Steve told him as he lifted a string of lights shaped like the arc reactor out of the box. “These have to go one first.”

He headed over to the tree, gesturing to Dum-e to join him.

“You do it like this.” He explained as he carefully as he put the lights on the tree.

Dum-e chirped and beeped as he watched, then rolled over to a box and pulled out another string. He rolled back to Steve, beeping and waving the lights excitedly.

“Ok, those next.” Steve laughed.

Tony watched in amazement as Steve patiently guided his bots through putting the lights on the tree, Clint and Bucky showed them how to put them around the windows, and Bruce kept everybody supplied with hot cocoa and cookies.

A couple hours later, the whole room was festoon in garland, lights, and ornaments.

“Only one thing left.” Steve said, holding the star out to Tony.

Tony took it from him and turned to Dum-e

“What are you waiting for?” he demanded. “Get over here and finish the job.”

Dum-e happily beeped as he took the star in his claw and rolled over to the tree. Everybody held their breath as he stretched up and placed the star crookedly on top of the tree. Steve shook his head when Tony opened his mouth to scold him.

“Ok, it's not a bad job for your first time.” Tony said. “I guess I'll keep you around.”

“Jarvis, turn them on, please.” Steve said.

The room lights went off and all the holiday lights came on, bathing the room in their colourful glow.

“Looks good.” Steve told Tony. “They did a nice job.”

“Ya, they did.” Tony agreed. “Thanks for helping, with them, I mean.”

“Family helps each other.” Steve said.

Tony blinked at him in surprise, then grinned and lifted his mug of cocoa.

“To family,” He toasted. “as unconventional as it is.”

“To family.”


End file.
